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Liberia’s Former Foreign Minister Enters 2017 Presidential Race

Former Liberian foreign minister Augustine Ngafuan formally
declared Tuesday his candidacy for president in the West African
nation's 2017 general election, joining a growing list of candidates,
including incumbent Vice President Joseph Boakai, football legend George
Manneh Weah of the Congress for Democratic Change party, Charles
Brumskine of the Liberty Party, and businessman Benoni Urey, a former
associate of former President Charles Taylor.Held many offices
Ngafuan, who also served as finance minister under President Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf, told VOA's Africa Service he has a track record of
competence and integrity in both public and private leadership
capacities.
“Over the years, I have contributed to my country. I have acquired
the necessary competence both in leadership position, out of government,
in government, from the Central Bank, from the position of budget
director of the Republic of Liberia, from the position of finance
minister, from the position of foreign affairs minister, I have been
delivering for my country and I intend to continue a track record of
deliverance for my country at the level of the presidency,” he said.
Ngafuan said the 2017 election comes at a critical junction in
Liberia’s history, and the next leaders must be of integrity and
credibility.New party affiliation
“If you follow the news, I have transitioned from the Unity Party. I
will in the coming days announce my new political home, but I can tell
you I will not be an independent candidate,” Ngafuan said.
He said he left the Unity Party (UP) because he felt he was being marginalized.
“I had to transition after years of introspection. I can tell you
this, we started to notice, whether by design or not some strategy of
exclusion, to the extent that people out there would have thought that I
was a stalwart respected at the level of the Unity Party, given the
role I played in the Unity Party. But since after the 2011 election,
this man has not been invited to any formal or informal meeting of the
UP. I haven’t sat in any meeting,” he said.
Ngafuan hails from the same Lofa County in northern Liberia as
incumbent Vice President Boakai, who is also a candidate for the
presidency. Asked if he and the vice president will not be competing for
the same Lofa County votes, Ngafuan said the presidency is not
primarily a Lofa County contest but rather a national contest.
“My county, Lofa, deserves all of its best to be put forward and that
the choices should be left with the Liberia people. So I am not in this
competition as an opposition to the vice president. I am creating a
choice. Ultimately the judge will be the Liberian people,” Ngafuan said.Fighting corruption a major platform
Last week, the London-based Global Witness organization
released a new report in which it alleged that over $950,000 in bribes
and other suspicious payments were made to top Liberian officials by the
British mining firm Sable Mining Company and its Liberian lawyer,
Varney Sherman.
According to the report entitled – The Deceivers – Sable
wanted to get the concession rights to Liberia’s Wologizi iron ore.
Sherman, who is also chairman of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s
ruling Unity Party, allegedly told the company that in order to get the
contract, Sable Mining must first offer bribes to senior officials to
change Liberia’s concession laws.
Ngafuan said the report was concerning to him, and he called for a
free, fair and equitable process in investigating the allegations
contained in the report. He outlined practical things he would do if
elected president in order to deepen the fight against corruption. He
credited President Sirleaf for already putting in place the
Anti-Corruption Commission, but said he will do more if elected
president.
“One of the things that I will do is to ensure that these entities
are adequately funded so that they can recruit many professionals and
remunerate them well and to reduce their vulnerability to compromising
on any case. The other thing is that we need to hugely fund the
prosecution arm of the Ministry of Justice such that they can recruit
more lawyers and they can remunerate them very well,” Ngafuan said.
Ngafuan also said he will push for a reform of the judiciary and the establishment of fast-track courts.
“The other thing would be to insist on an annual audit of critical
institutions beginning with the ministry of state under which the
Executive Mansion is, and then the legislature, and then the judiciary.
It will surprise you that since 2015, there are entities of branches of
government that have been audited. I will tell you that the judiciary
has not been audited, the legislature hasn’t been audited,” he said.

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